I always try to spend some time each day to read through my blog list, and Langwitches highlighted a recent session by Brian Smith on Taking Play seriously:
So, would more play produce more creativity which would result in higher test scores? Hmmmm………
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Retention of juvenile characteristics in the adults of a species
If you are studying habitat, animals, or the like, follow the eagles at Norfolk Botanical Gardens on the EagleCam from Ch. 13. There’s a new egg in the nest!
Benchmarks are over! Yea! Time for a chuckle:
What Children Have Learned:
–No matter how hard you try, you can’t baptize cats.
–When your mom is mad at your dad, don’t let her brush your hair.
–If your brother hits you, don’t hit him back. They always catch the second person.
–Never ask your 3-year old brother to hold a tomato.
–You can’t trust dogs to watch your food.
–Reading what people write on desks can teach you a lot.
–Don’t sneeze when someone is cutting your hair.
-Puppies still have bad breath even after eating a tic tac.
–Never hold a dustbuster and a cat at the same time.
–School lunches stick to the wall.
–You can’t hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk.
–Don’t wear polka-dot underwear under white shorts.
Want some more laughs? Check the humor section in my previous post. Have a good weekend!
Have you (PPS teachers) signed up at our Ning (link on the right under blog roll–>)? One of our virtual professional development activities is 21 Things for Teachers, or a self-paced opportunity where you are encouraged to explore and play. The goal of this activity is for you to recognize the value of Web 2.0 resources and tools as a means to improve teaching and learning. The document can be found online at http://OITMSPD.pbworks.com. If you learn even just a few things that benefit our students, then your effort will be worth it.
For example, #17 asks for you to create an avatar at http://cpbintegrated.com/theherofactory/ and become a hero! You can see my avatar above. Enjoy!
I’m sure, when I was a classroom teacher, that I caused the parents of my students to, at times, think they were losing their minds. One parent even confronted me and said, “You’re driving me to drink!” (teasing), and one time a parent met me at the door and asked if she could take the “big test” that day to see how SHE would do from all the help she gave her son in preparing and studying. I wanted my students to have fun, but I also wanted them to not accept the menial or sit there and be mere recipients of instruction; I wanted them to be CURIOUS. For example, once when I threw out a question in math class, “What is 1 + 1?”, I called on one student who replied, “Two.”
“Why?”
He hesitated, squirmed, and said, “Um, three?”
“You were right the first time, but tell me why. Prove it.”
The class was on the road to learning how to be curious, to seek, to question, to listen, to delve into topics, and to fly. When we were discussing how Indians planted beans and corn, we went out to do it. When parents were unable to go on field trips with us, I decided to take them at night—fathers preferred. The favorite one was to Colonial Williamsburg’s evening tours, and imagine the thrill everyone had walking through the clearing by the creek, holding up candle lanterns, while a full moon also lit the path! Afterwards, we went for evening snacks at Chowning’s Tavern and got home around 12:30 the next morning. One parent stopped in to see me the next week and shared how his son, while on the way to soccer practice, wanted to stop at the library and check out a book about that era of history. “My son actually touched a BOOK!” Curiosity led to learning!
Technology can also bring curiosity into the classroom. There are many ways:
• Take a virtual field trip from your classroom
• Make a movie. Have your students create a book report and we can green screen the cover in the back!
• Check out web cams. Colonial Williamsburg has some, and you might find some at places around the world: (pyramids), (see the Panda at the Zoo) (Eiffel Tower) or (The London Eye). Wish to travel the United States? How about the Grand Canyon? How about Antarctica? I worked in Brussels–and get this–you can CONTROL and rotate the camera! Grand Place!
• Instead of a worksheet, use Quia. Ask Miss Laughlin and Mrs. Hawkins how nice it is to forego the worksheet and go virtual!
Curiosity will draw the student into a lesson and, when real world context is integrated, as well as technology, you’re going to have a determined and happy student. Exercising the brain should be fun, even if it hurts—no pain, no gain!
WARNING! Reading this post may cause you to change your teaching!
Voicethread, a great resource for the classroom which involves uploading pictures and having students record a script, has many uses in the classroom, and best of all, it is EASY! I found a good Wiki that gives resources for ideas in using Voicethread in the classroom. Curious? Share your lesson plans, and we can come up with a fun, AND useful, resource! [also try Digitally Speaking]
On the way to work this morning and sitting in traffic, I looked out over the Elizabeth River and the port and wondered, “What would happen if the Standards of Learning were put in businesses and other professions?” Hmmmmm….
The manager of Big Box Electronic Store called his staff for a meeting one Saturday morning. In fact, this meeting was so important, he decided to close the business for two hours so that the new accountability/evaluation procedures could be introduced: The Sales of Life Standards. After seeing that all were present, the meeting began.
“Good morning everyone. Today we are starting a new accountability system for your performance reviews. In order to see growth and make sure our store chain is the best in the world, we want to stretch your performance on the sales floor.” He discussed the particulars of the program.
In year one, baseline data will be taken to see what sales averages are in each department. From there, a minimum dollar amount per department will be established, and hire/fire rates will be determined. In year two, each employee will be given a minimum sales quota per day. If these are not met after the first semester, employees will be put on a warning. After the second semester, if the quota is not met, somebody from corporate headquarters will be shadowing you to determine what the employee’s problem is. For those that meet minimum requirements, the quota will go up each semester with the eventual goal that every customer that comes through the door will buy a minimum of $100 per visit and each store will be held accountable.
Employees went ballistic!
“What if a customer is just getting information before making a future purchase?”
“Too bad. He must buy.”
“The economy! Customers can’t afford that much! EVERY single customer must buy $100 per visit by 2013?”
“Yes!”
The manager also mentioned that due to the bad economy, salaries would be cut.
The stress level of the employees went through the troposphere. In fact, as every customer came in, employees were grabbing them by the collar and pulled them face-to-face. “WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BUY? PLEASE!!!!!” Frightened, customers were seen running out the door screaming. Soon, customers were frightened and hated visiting the store. Shopping became so stressful that they didn’t even come close to entering the building anymore. The manager soon noticed his sales were plummeting. Employee morale was at rock bottom. Laughing stopped and creativity was gone. The atmosphere was all gloom. Smiling was rare. The evaluation process was not a success, for employees couldn’t figure out why they couldn’t get 100% of the customers to make major purchases.
The point of this story? Our customers, the students, can feel this pressure. As schools head towards 100% of students must pass state tests in 2014, is our stress taken away? No—it only gets worse. However, we can do something about it:
• Let students have breathing room: instead of worksheets, how about tracking their progress with a Quia activity? Yes, they could enjoy a game online, but I could help you track their progess: you have data and remediation records, and they don’t have another worksheet.
• Lower your paper work: Quia can track grades for you, grade the paper, and provide reports for you. Your stress plummets.
• Laugh: what if we had a humor/joke post on the blog? When you feel overwhelmed, take a laugh break?
• Put learning in their hands: What if we made a Voicethread? Podcast? Blog (see Mrs. Craig’s latest).
And last, but not least, invite me to your classroom to coteach. You won’t feel the burden all by yourself!
If you are searching for free resources for your classroom, then visit http://www.freeology.com/. Brought to my attention by Mrs. Barth, many goodies are here for you to use:
• Teacher Humor (don’t we need that all the time???)
• Fun and Games
• Worksheet Creator
• Links Directory
• Graphic Organizers
• Journal Topics
• Quote Posters
• Teacher Forms
• Back to School
• Awards/Certificates
• Coloring Pages
• Large Letters to Color
• Seasonal
• Mazes
• Word Searches
• Dynamic Story Starter
• Inspiration
• Analogies Worksheets
Excuse the colloquialism, but we’ve all heard the quote that variety is the spice of life. How often, I wonder, do students wish for some variety?
Looking over Benchmark scores recently, I noticed that one area that was weak was using detailed and descriptive words. One technology integration tool that would be exciting for students is Visuwords, an online graphical thesaurus and dictionary. Imagine students, instead of moaning as they pick up Roget’s, instead WANTING to find synonyms, antonymns, and checking the usage of a word! They can do this with Visuwords, an online Thesaurus with punch. As quoted on their homepage:
If you use Firefox, you can add Visuwords as a search tool into the Firefox search bar.
Visuwords™ online graphical dictionary — Look up words to find their meanings and associations with other words and concepts. Produce diagrams reminiscent of a neural net. Learn how words associate.
Enter words into the search box to look them up or double-click a node to expand the tree. Click and drag the background to pan around and use the mouse wheel to zoom. Hover over nodes to see the definition and click and drag individual nodes to move them around to help clarify connections.
It’s a dictionary! It’s a thesaurus!
Great for writers, journalists, students, teachers, and artists.
The online dictionary is available wherever there’s an internet connection.
No membership required.
Curious? Click the picture above and have some fun!
Latest happenings at Olive Branch and John Tyler:
Mrs. Froehlich (1st): Students, having learned about landforms, will be “flying” across the United States next week using Google Earth and will stop at different landforms across the United States. The class will take off from Portsmouth, head west via the Shenandoah Valley and zoom over to the Rocky Mountains. The trip will commence at Mt. Everest and from there the students will be trekking to the summit via IPIX! Mrs. Froehlich is also planning making a Word Wall using Wordle.
Mr. O’Donnell, Olive Branch video guru, is studying Sony’s Vegas program and is planning even BETTER video projects with his Social Studies classes. Upcoming thoughts include split screen shots, as well as multiple other professional looking videos.
Mrs. Craig is introducing blogging to her students as students will journal on line. This weekend she’ll be busy at work adding students to Blogmeister, and soon they will be our local in house writing “office”!
Mrs. Hawkins and Mrs. Ruben have now “gone virtual” by having their students take their Virginia History tests online with Quia [editor's note: Quia training is offered this Spring at Tech Tuesdays!]. Once students finish, results are immediate and data is broken down in detail for immediate remediation while information is fresh in students’ minds.
Mrs. Jackson is now an avid fan of using the wireless keyboard with her MCPS system! Her latest mantra is “I AM going to use technology more and more!”
Mrs. Patgorski stayed last Friday afternoon showing Mr. Pollito the benefits of using Kidspiration3.
Mrs. Rhodes’ class practiced typing their spelling words using Wordle.
Mrs. Holt met with me asking for advice for a technology pacing plan for grades K-6 l. As a result, all classes have been using laptops in the library and are becoming avid users of technology!
Mr. Geary has been teaching students how to use Microsoft Word in the computer lab
Mrs. Barth has been “beating the bushes” looking for web sites that will assist in remediation and strengthening for skills in all the subject areas!
Mrs. Bright’s leading has resulted in the Olive Branch PTA purchasing a new set of ActiVotes for Olive Branch.
Mrs. Westbrook has decided to sign up for PrometheanPlanet and learn about ActivInspire, even though she doesn’t have a Promethean Board.
Mrs. Diddle, Mrs. Froehlich, Mrs. Webb, Mrs. Craig, Ms. Webb, and Mrs. Barrett have all asked when the Tech Tuesday schedule comes out for the Spring!
Last week Mrs. Austin got to practice the wireless keyboard, ActivExpressions, and using a flipchart with a lesson as she prepared for the Benchmarks.
The John Tyler staff used the survey resource from Quia to give feedback for the Microsoft Office 2007 rollout February 11.
Any more nominees? Feel free to leave a Shout Out in the comments!
